SEOUL, Feb. 29 (Yonhap) — In a backstreet of Sinchon, western Seoul, lined with dubious motels, a staircase leads into a basement den lined with padded walls and padded floors. Inside, to the beat of rock music, a dozen young men roll around on the floor, locked in sweaty grapples.

It’s rough stuff, but the master of this combat asylum is not a muscle-bound human gorilla with a degree from the school of hard knocks. He is a lithe Californian with a Harvard doctorate in Korean literature.

Meet John Frankl: Yonsei University associate professor and third degree black belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu, an art he introduced to South Korea in 1999. Today with 12 affiliated dojang (martial arts schools) nationwide, the 44-year old academic is probably the most influential foreign martial artist to reside in Korea in the republic’s history.

John Frankl displaying his academic side while on campus (All photos courtesy of Andrew Salmon)

Originally, however, it was Korean martial arts that lured him to the peninsula as well as his academic specialty while an undergraduate at the University of California, Berkeley.

“Being in California, I could have chosen from a lot of martial arts,” said Frankl. “I chose ‘kuk sool won’ as they were offering kicking, punching, joint locking and grappling.”

Studying that art from 1985-1991 generated an interest in Korea, and a switch in major from English to Korean Studies. That led to a master’s at Yonsei with a specialization in literature, a fluency in the language and subsequently, a Harvard Ph.D.

Now a professor and translator of Korean literature, Frankl holds strong opinions on the subject, maintaining that much of the oeuvre is too local-centric to win the global popularity achieved by Korean manufactured products, pop culture and cuisine.

“A lot of Korean literature is too Korean and Koreans want it translated because they think it represents Korean uniqueness, but that’s not so interesting to people unfamiliar with that rhetoric of uniqueness,” he said. “When Koreans sell a Hyundai in California, they don’t dictate to customers. They listen to them.”

He is currently researching and translating the essays of famous poet Yi Sang (1910-1937), which cover a broad variety of colonial-era issues. He will be taking a one year sabbatical at Harvard in 2012 to produce a book.

Ironically, as Frankl’s interest in Korea grew, his interest in Korean martial arts waned.

“In kuk sool, you would do solo forms and joint-locking, but when you sparred, it was kickboxing,” he said. He sought more realistic Thai and Philippino training, and even studied under Bruce Lee student Dan Inosanto before settling on Brazilian jiu-jitsu, or BJJ. “In BJJ, you spar the way you train,” he said.

BJJ is a brilliantly effective offshoot of the original Japanese martial art that also spawned the sport of judo. Its specialization in ground fighting makes it a must for competitors in the mixed martial arts tournaments that have revolutionized combative training globally following the advent of the Ultimate Fighting Championship, or UFC, in the United States in the early 1990s.

Frankl learned BJJ under the famous masters Rickson Gracie and Roberto Maia, and introduced it to Korea as a brown belt in 1999. His students include the U.S. Special Forces and he was once asked to teach one of Korea’s richest men and his security detail at his private gym. When Frankl suggested the gentleman visit his public dojang, the man decided to find another instructor.

In a land where a taekwondo black belt can be earned in less than a year, Frankl has only promoted five men to that grade. “It is BJJ; I have not Koreanized it,” he said. “I’m doing it the way I learned it: 10 years to black belt, give or take.”

His first black belt is fellow American Stephen Capener. Capener, a professor of interpretation who is himself no martial arts neophyte — he holds a seventh degree black belt in taekwondo — praises Frankl’s approach.

“John has got an education and brings that to his teaching,” he said. “And after a certain age in Korean martial arts, most masters stop training and become armchair quarterbacks, but John is constantly researching and evolving.”

Frankl at work in Brazilian jiu-jitsu session

Indeed: Frankl takes five-six sessions per week, sparring all comers. The “John Frankl Competition Team” now competes locally and as far afield as Abu Dhabi.

Though his own students are exclusively adults, with backgrounds ranging from taxi driving to academia, Frankl bemoans the fact that in Korea generally, dojangs are largely the domain of children as adults gravitate toward golf and karaoke.

“In the U.S., Japan and Brazil, martial arts are very much an adult pursuit, something middle-class professionals do,” he said. “Lifestyle balance is not a priority in Korea. By the time they are 30, Koreans are under pressure to go out with the people they spent the last 12 hours with.”

Yet among Yonsei’s dreaming spires, customarily inhabited by frail and bespectacled professors, his hobby is not considered thuggish.

“Yonsei professors think it’s cool, they admire it as it is associated with the UFC, which is a televised sport,” he said.

Next year, while researching Yi Sang at Harvard, Frankl plans to compete in the U.S. at a level of BJJ competition that is currently unavailable in Korea. But after that, he will be back.

“I like Korea. I like the direction it is moving,” he said, “I feel really comfortable here.”

Source: Yonhap News

Opened by fighter-turned-coach Jason Pietz and partners Marc Lewis, Cedric Schwyzer and Jeremy Rosales, the Chico, CA gym offers classes in BJJ, Muay Thai, Kickboxing, Grappling and Wrestling at a variety of levels and for women as well as men. Jason Pietz is no stranger to the cage (most recently having defeated Vincent Perez at FCP-Malice), so students are able to train with one of the best. He has trained at many of the top camps over the last 14 years, traveling hours a day in some situations. And his history speaks volumes. Having trained with the legendary Ken Shamrock, Pietz was one of the top guys on his fight team years ago. In the book Beyond the Lion’s Den, Jason and Ken are featured in almost every photo shot. After the Lion’s Den, Pietz went to train at the American Kickboxing Academy in San Jose, CA. A well-known gym, Pietz actually came up through the ranks with a lot of the top stars you see today: Josh Koscheck, Jon Fitch, Josh Thompson etc. Ultimately, to his disappointment, Jason was traveling too much to train there. Instead, he made the wise decision to open up StandAlone MMA, LLC with Marc Lewis and a few other guys a little over a year ago.

If you still don’t believe that this gym is the best, all one needs to do is look at the clientele. Famed MMA writers Erich Krauss and Glen Cordoza (who have written books on Shamrock, Couture, Silva (coming Oct 10), Fedor, BJ and the list goes on) not only train at StandAlone, but they also offer up their expertise in the form of coaching. Basically, Krauss and Cordoza are guys that roll with the top camps in the world and they bring their knowledge back to StandAlone.

From the perspective of the gym, StandAlone is going to burst onto the scene within the next year. Being a new gym, they have had many obstacles to climb and are now ready to get their fighters out there. They are not your typical gym. They don’t just throw people out into professional MMA matches after a few months of training. If you fight on the StandAlone fight team you fight to win. Losing is not even considered. That might also be the reason they have taken so long to build their team. Professionally, the gym holds an 14-4 record (if you count Cordoza’s fights in Thailand) and this is just the beginning. The focus for the upcoming year is getting their fighters exposure.

As a matter of fact, two fighters, the 2-1Anthony Fernandez and the 6-2 Josh Hinkle, will be traveling to Chicago on the 27th to test themselves at The Ultimate Fighter 9 audition. In checking out their website (www.StandAloneMMA.com), it’s clear that they have nothing but top quality fighters training and coaching there.

Not to mention, these are two of the most professional, upstanding guys I have ever had the pleasure to work with in MMA. In doing the research for this piece, they were always easy to reach and always had exactly what I needed from them. I only wish that I could get to their gym to thank them for their time and efforts (and maybe partake in the Muay Thai class)!

That being said, you guys seriously need to either get to StandAlone to train yourself, or you need to watch who’s going to be coming out of there. It seems to me like the fighters at StandAlone are serious up-and-comers that we will be seeing on the big stage in no time. With guys like Jason, Marc, Cedric and Jeremy as their trainers and support system, the StandAlone Fight Team will be a force to be reckoned with!

Get to www.StandAloneMMA.com, check out the fighters, and check out the classes watch the videos. Then you’ll be able to say you knew them way back when!

Via: Nichole Lesniak. Chico State Orion

http://www.the-mixed-martial-arts-of-mma.com/Healthy-Eating-Guidelines.html

You ever feel so tired, sore and unmotivated to the point where training and working out are the last two things on your mind? Well chances are you feel this way because you probably don’t eat too well and don’t concentrate on what your putting into your body like most people. The first step is being aware that you need to change your eating habits – do you need to change yours?
Eating the right foods before, after and during your training sessions could be the determining factor in whether your able to go that extra mile or not.

You can’t eat a bucket of ice cream for breakfast and then step into the ring to spar. What you can expect is to have zero energy and eventually get hit with a body shot that will make you vomit all over your sparring buddy (which will inevitably lead to a TKO) – On the other hand if you eat a healthy breakfast, like oatmeal, eggs and blueberries your much more likely to increase the intensity or your workouts without feeling sick or fatigued and actually get some production out of your training session.

A common question I see on the web is people asking is “what kind of tips on healthy eating are there for people who train twice a day and are always putting maximum stress on their body.” I figured I could help in solving this riddle with 10 healthy eating guidelines and tips you should consider when training hard nearly every day.

If you need tips on cutting weight then click on the link for an article that is bound to help get to the lowest weight class possible.

Healthy Eating Guidelines – 10 Tips

Healthy Eating Guideline Tip #1
Don’t Diet You Fool

A diet implies that your only doing it for a certain amount of time – therefore dieting never works. In order to be a successful athlete in an area, especially MMA, you have to adopt healthy eating habits throughout your everyday life.
Now some diets have good tips on healthy eating, and by all means if some ‘diets’ sounds like your type of meal plan than by all means take whatever you can from it… just when people ask you what you eat, don’t say “I follow this and that diet”, say “I’m badass – I don’t do diets”

Ultimately what you want to develop is a long, healthy, smart eating style that works for you and pleases your taste buds without sacrificing nutrition. Everyone is different so you have to experiment with certain foods to see how your body reacts to them and then take it from there.

Healthy Eating Guideline Tip #2
Plan Ahead

First off, if you think you can follow these healthy eating guidelines and change your eating habits overnight, your living in a dream world. You have to start changing your eating habits slowly, just like if you were to just begin MMA or any fitness program, for instance;

If you are new to fighting your not going to jump into the cage in the first month you train because you’ll probably get hurt… same goes with starting a brand new workout by trying to lift your maximum weight.

You can’t expect to jump into completely altering your eating habits in a short period of time.

The most important concept to understand when beginning the change of your eating habits is planning ahead! If you plan your meals ahead of time that takes away the stress of thinking about what to eat.

Personally if I don’t plan my meals ahead of time, I feel rushed into making a decision and usually end up making a poor choice for my meal, like yesterday I didn’t have a plan and I ended up eating jelly beans and fried chicken for breakfast.

Having your refrigerator and pantry stocked with healthy foods will help you stay away from any junk food for when you start craving them with those infamous late night munchies. If you don’t have your house stocked with cookies and Twinkies, you won’t binge eat and you’ll be forced to make yourself a salad or munch on some strawberries.

What should you stock your fridge and pantry with?
Typically you want to use the perimeter of the grocery store to pick out the healthiest ingredients and snacks. The outer part of the store usually contains fruits, vegetables, meat, poultry, frozen fruits and vegetables, spices and oils.
Also keep in mind that when you bring your food home try to plan ahead by having it meal ready by cutting, dicing or grilling whatever it has to be in order for it to be quick and easy to eat or put into a recipe.

How else do you plan ahead?
Plan your meals on a daily, weekly or monthly basis. What I tend to do is plan my meals every other day and cook enough so I have left overs for when I don’t have enough time to cook. Also cooking your own meals saves a ton of money, even if you happen to be horrible at cooking.

Healthy Eating Guideline Tip #3
Start Slow and Gradually Make Changes

If you were listening to me before (like you should) don’t expect to be able to change your eating habits by just reading these healthy eating guidelines and clicking your heels of your ruby slippers together.

Just like training, it takes time and dedication to get the full benefits of eating healthy and stay on the right track.
Your best bet is to take small steps like eating a vegetable with every meal, or having a fruit with your breakfast. If you try to change everything at once you’ll be much more prone to binge eating.

Here’s one of the more important tips on eating healthy – Don’t feel like you have to be perfect in order to eat healthy, if you don’t splurge every once in awhile your going to drive yourself nuts. On the other hand you don’t want be all hormonal and eat crap food all the time when your in a bad mood or not concentrating on what your eating.

Don’t let your small mistakes get to you and make you want to go back to your old eating habits. Persevere and stay determined – remind yourself your doing this for your training and every thing you put into your body is so you can become a better MMA fighter/athlete.

Healthy Eating Guideline Tip #4
Moderate

Moderating your food is often overlooked because people tend to believe they either have to eat healthy all the time, or not at all. This all or nothing attitude can hinder you from reaching your health and fitness goals.
Moderation is by far one of the most important tips on eating healthy. It will help you learn how to split up meals properly while simultaneously learning how to ration yourself little bits of your guilty pleasures, like how I eat a couple oreos every once in awhile.
But first you have to split up your meals throughout the day and try to constantly eat healthy snacks and meals with high nutritional value.

If you have 6-8 small meals a day it will help speed up your metabolism, which in return will help you lose weight and gain energy. On the other hand if you eat 3 large meals a day you set up your metabolism to slow down and your body to crash because you are overloading your body instead of gradually fueling it.

Try not to completely ban certain foods from eating either.

Oreo Cookies.

Now your thinking about Oreo Cookies right? Well try to stop thinking about them now… bet you can’t! See that’s my problem, Oreos are always on my mind.

When I try really hard to forget about my Oreo fetish it sticks in my mind longer and makes me salivate just thinking about dunking that godlike cookie in milk.

If you tell yourself your not going to eat a certain type of food or certain snack that you constantly crave, your mind is going to subconsciously make you want it even more and it’ll drive you crazy!!!

So go ahead, have an oreo once in awhile… just moderate it and don’t eat the whole box!

Healthy Eating Guideline Tip #5
How Do You Eat Your Food?

Are you somebody who sits in front of the TV when you eat?Or are you somebody who isn’t completely socially awkward so you can actually eat with others?

Well studies have shown that if you eat while you watch TV you tend to overeat because your mind isn’t focused on eating.It’s mindless eating.

On the other hand if you eat with others it can benefit you socially and emotionally and allows you to be a model for eating healthy.
Another key to get the full benefits of healthy eating is being patient and taking your time while you eat. Most people tend to be involved in another activity while they eat, so their mind tends to be at a different place where they can’t concentrate on what type of food they’re putting into their bodies.

Stop.

Take a step back and enjoy the food for once! Savor every bite. Chew slowly. Enjoy the food you eat instead of shoving a whole piece of steak down your throat by lubing it up with A-1 sauce. It won’t work… I’ve tried.

Are you even hungry? Listen to your body and ask yourself if you are actually hungry or if you are just craving a certain food. Having a glass of water is a great way to help figure out if your hungry or just thirsty.

Healthy Eating Guideline Tip #6
Eat Fruits and Vegetables

This tip on healthy eating may seem pretty obvious but incorporating fruits and vegetables into your healthy eating habits is commonly overlooked.

Being low in calories and dense in nutrition (vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants), fruits and vegetables are vital for increasing energy, reducing the risk of various diseases and increasing your metabolism.

Generally green vegetables are filled with calcium, magnesium, iron, potassium, zinc, vitamins a,c,e and k and they help with strengthening the blood and respiratory systems. Sweet vegetables are great because they help curb your appetite and help reduce the cravings for sweets like cookies and chocolate.

Make sure to have a wide variety of fruits! Many of them contain fiber, vitamins and antioxidants. There’s a good amount of fruits and vegetables that can help in your recovery as well due to the high volume of nutrients.

Healthy Eating Guideline Tip #7
Eat The Right Carbs

Make sure in your quest to finding the right food to eat that you don’t overlook the healthy carbs that you should be consuming.
Most diets hate on carbs but realistically that’s were a vast majority of your energy will come from. If your train to fight, participate in a sport or plan on working out you NEED carbs, otherwise you’ll lack the energy to get the desired results from your workouts.
Whole grains are great fiber sources that give you long lasting energy and are rich in antioxidants.

Try to include different types of whole grains like brown rice, whole wheat, and barely when your making meals. Stay away from the bad, unhealthy carbohydrates like white flour, white rice, and refined sugar – these carbs digest quickly and can cause a spike in blood sugar levels and energy.

Make sure your eating whole grains, beans, fruits and vegetables because they will help you feel full longer while keeping your insulin levels stable.

One of the best carbs you could eat (especially for breakfast) is oatmeal! Do yourself a favor and learn how to cook oatmeal!

Healthy Eating Guideline Tip #8
Eat The Right Fats

Eat fat? Oh hell yea.
Make sure your eating healthy fats like monounsaturated fats from canola oil, peanut oil and olive oil. Or even try polyunsaturated fats that are found in fatty fish such as salmon, sardines and fish supplements. You can find other polyunsaturated fats in sunflower, soybeans, corn and flaxseed oils.

The fats you want to stay away from are the saturated and trans fats that are found in red meat, whole milk, margarine, crackers, cookies and a majority of snack foods.

Good sources of fat help nourish your heart, brain and skin which in turn will help in your athletic performance. Fats that contain Omega- 3 fatty acids are important in helping reduce cardiovascular disease while at the same time improving your mood!

Healthy Eating Guideline Tip #9
Eat The Right Protein

Protein is the basic building block for your body’s growth and energy. A lack of protein can reduce muscle mass, lower immunity, slow growth and weaken your body’s heart and respiratory system.

Good sources of protein consist of, beans, nuts, soy products, fresh fish, chicken, turkey, eggs or tofu. When you eat meat try to buy organic products so it is free of hormones and antibiotics. Try not to overlook the quality of the protein and make the right choices when you go food shopping.

Now protein is important for MMA fighters and athletes of all different kinds but don’t let that be the mainstay of your diet – make sure you still are eating a well balanced diet that includes a little bit of everything from the food pyramid.

Healthy Eating Guideline Tip #10
Stay Away From Sugar

Now since I know you have already been following all the other healthy eating guidelines and tips on healthy eating that I’ve given you, you should also be limiting sugar, salt and refined grains.

There’s nothing wrong with enjoying those Oreos in moderation but sugar can cause energy ups and downs, osteoporosis, headaches and depression.

Try to avoid adding sugar into recipes that don’t necessarily need it. Avoid sugary energy drinks like Redbull or Monsters that are sold pretty much everywhere, they are horrible!

Processed foods are also a red flag. They are usually made with white flour and white sugar which can cause your energy levels to be erratic and your mood as well.

Even if you listen to half of my advice and tips on healthy eating I guarantee that you’ll feel the benefits of healthy eating in no time. Now if you neglect these healthy eating guidelines and think you can go on training with whatever bad eating habits you had before, then by all means go ahead and try.

Just keep in mind if you want to take any workout or sport seriously, especially a combat sport like MMA, the way you eat is going to make or break you.

CRYOTHERAPY is the local or general use of low temperatures in medical therapy or the removal of heat from a body part. It has been around since the 1880-1890s.

The goal is to decrease cellular metabolism, increase cellular survival, decrease inflammation, decrease pain and spasm, promote vasoconstriction, and when using extreme temperatures, to destroy cells by crystallizing the cytosol. The most prominent use of the term refers to the surgical treatment, specifically known as cryosurgery. Other therapies that use the term are cryogenic chamber therapy and ice pack therapy.

In other words, when the average Joe/Jane and competitive athlete uses intense interval training, they are constantly training with extreme output and are breaking down muscle tissues to the max. Athletes use ice baths to mimic the CRYOTHERAPY process and allow them to recover quicker, so they can continue the next day with their training regimen.

When you think about an ice bath you probably would prefer to do anything except that right? You definitely aren’t alone in that train of thought , but there are many reasons explaining why so many fighters and trainers alike recommend ice bathing to their clientele, and that’s because it does really work.

“Cryotherapy” is basically is that art of constricting your arteries. This will then stop the tissues from swelling and becoming sore and tender in the muscles. When you get out of the ice bath, your body gets warm immediately and in doing so it causes the blood supply to return much quicker, thus disposing any debris that can be surrounded inside the muscles as a result of coaching.

There are many techniques of creating an ice bath, some use a regular bath in their home and just fill it up with cold water and ice cubes and others like to use ice packs from the fridge. Many sportsmen wear compression gear or other MMA clothes or fight gear and employ a barrel and soak in the ice outside then dump it out when they’re finished. Now, you have to prepare yourself before getting in the ice bath as it will not be a very pleasing experience initially.

It is ice, so naturally your body will need to reject that cold feeling and make a response to it instantly. Ease yourself in the bath slowly the first time and after you feel the benefits of your ice showering practices next day, you may stick to it! Many fighters say they use hot coffee just before getting in it to decrease the shocking feeling it gives off.

Stay in the bath between fifteen and 20 minutes and no longer to avoid any major injuries like hypothermia. Wrap yourself in something warm afterward and enjoy a hot cup of soup or oatmeal, your body will give you thanks for it!

If you do not have an ice bath available to you there are several other ways to get similar benefits. For smaller areas, freeze some water in a dixie-cup, then peel some of the cup off so you have about half an inch of ice showing. Directly massage the injured area with the ice until you cant hold the cup and the area is numb, 4 times per day.

For bigger areas you can get yourself a cold therapy unit.

If you read my articles you know that explosiveness is largely dependent upon strength, and strength is fairly influenced by muscular growth, or hypertrophy. In this article I’d like to address another topic along these lines and this the topic of functional vs non-functional hypertrophy. Non-functional hypertrophy refers to gains in muscle size that aren’t associated with an improved capacity to produce force. “Functional” hypertrophy refers to gains in muscular size that improve maximal force production, and thus carry over into the real world. Simple enough.

Manufactured Strength Vs Natural Strength

Before I get into it I’d like to point out that no supplemental training method is perfect and has a perfect transfer to sport. The practice of adding strength and size thru weight training in an attempt to apply the benefits of that strength and size to a sport is effective but it won’t ever be perfect. You’re basically manufacturing something that wasn’t there to begin with – You’re allowing your body to adapt to one stimulus and then applying those adaptations to another area. It really is cheating in a way. The only thing that isn’t cheating would be actually playing the sport and letting your body adapt naturally. However, we know there are limits to that. But this is one reason why people that have “natural” strength, size, and power will generally have a “functional” strength advantage over those who have to manufacture it. Reggie White, Lawrence Taylor, and Mike Tyson rarely if ever lifted a weight. Compare them to muscled up guys like Frank Bruno, Tony Mandarich, and Vernon Gholston. Manufacturing size and strength isn’t perfect regardless of how you acquire it, but it beats the alternative and can allow you to compete at a level you wouldn’t have.

Myofibrillar growth vs Sarcoplasmic growth

Now that I’ve got that out of the way, let’s talk a little bit of muscle physiology. In a muscle cell you have the actual protein content in the cell, or the myofibrils, and you also have fluid surrounding the protein, the sarcoplasm. Strength is primarily influenced by the amount of protein contained in the cellular filaments, or the myofibrils.

There is a belief in the training world that certain types of training can influence the growth of one of these components over the other. The belief is that heavy low rep weight training favors growth of the myofibrils and builds muscles that are as strong and “functional” as they look, if not stronger. In contrast, higher volume/higher rep training (bodybuilding methods), are often believed to favor growth of the sarcoplasm. Since the sarcoplasm consists of non-contractual fluid it is supposedly possible to gain large amounts of size without any increase in strength. This is deemed to be responsible for the so called non functional strength or “bodybuilding fluff” lended to bodybuilding methods. Muscles that aren’t as strong as they look or muscles that are slow and unathletic.
For this reason athletes are often encouraged to train heavy and use lower repetitions in their training. There is a belief that training with higher reps and shorter rest intervals and lighter weights builds only non-functional strength.

What Really Happens

However, when we examine this claim critically, science demonstrates the size of the sarcoplasm is limited by the size of the myofibrils. In other words, a cell can only hold so much sarcoplasm and that amount is limited by the size of the myofibril within it. Additionally, more than a handful of studies have tried to differentiate myofibrillar from sarcoplasmic hypertrophy with different protocols and loading parameters. In every single one of them myofibrillar growth always comes out well ahead, typically by a 2-3 x margin.(1-5) Thus, it would seem it is impossible to increase sarcoplasmic growth in the absence of myofibrillar growth regardless of what strategies are employed.
This would tend to indicate that sarcoplasmic hypertrophy is mostly a myth. Well, technically it does, but in practical terms non-functional growth does exist, but in my humble opinion it doesn’t occur in ways most people think. In the real world non-functional hypertrophy is simply extra glycogen storage. A muscle that has it’s energy stores taxed (thru higher volume training) will adapt to store more glycogen, or carbohydrate energy, and this can add a significant amount of extra weight and size.
Fluff and Glycogen
A normal 170 lb male can store about 350-500 grams of total glycogen in his muscles. A 170 lb male whose muscles are trained at fairly high volume can store about double that, or ~1000 grams. Each gram of glycogen attracts 3 grams of water with it, so 500 grams of extra muscle glycogen above average will add an extra 2000 grams of total weight above normal, or about 4.5 lbs. This 4.5 pounds of extra glycogen and fluid will be stored in the muscles and will “appear” to be solid muscle weight, but it’s really nothing more than energy and water. Four and a half pounds may not sound like a lot but take a look at a 4.5 lb steak next time you’re in supermarket and you can see that’s a considerable amount.
Let’s say you take 2 people with 15 inch arms who train with fairly low volume, so their energy stores are never really taxed. Let’s say they do something like 5 sets of 3-5 reps for biceps and triceps twice per week. You keep one of them on low volume and put the other one on high volume, something like 8 sets of 10-12 reps twice per week. The guy on the higher volume protocol might see his arms immediately go up an extra 1/2 to 3/4 of an inch over the other guy, because the extra volume taxes the energy stores in his arms to a greater degree and the body adapts to that by increasing the amount of energy that can be stored in his arms. So their arms will be the same size from a myofibrillar perspective and likely be the same strength wise but the 2nd guy will have more glycogen storage, which makes his muscles look bigger (and may makes him appear weak for his size compared to the other guy).
A person with a 20 inch solid arm who trains with low volume might be able to add a full inch by increasing his volume.
That’s not to say that someone training with higher reps can’t build plenty of functional strength and size in the process. As long as he trains with progressive resistance his myofibrils will increase in size just as well as the guy on lower reps, he’s just more likely to have a nearly immediate extra gain from the increased glycogen storage in addition to that.
With higher volume training the average bro might be able to gain 5-10 lbs or so of sarcoplasmic hypertrophy across his entire body over what he would on lower volume protcols. Cell volumizers like creatine also attract water into the muscle and add to that. Add in steroids (which often increase creatine storage and water retention) and other cell volumizers and it’s fairly easy to see how bodybuilders training at high volumes can add a significant amount of “fluff” weight.

So Why Are Some People Weak For Their Size?

Besides that there is one primary reason why “high-rep” guys might appear weak for their size:
A: They rarely practice lifting maximal weights so they’re not as good at lifting maximal weights. Maximum strength is a skill that must be practiced, just like sporting movements are skills that must be practiced. You also see this in reverse. If you take a bodybuilder who regularly does sets of 15-20 reps and a power lifter who regularly does sets of 1-3 the bodybuilder will have a hard time matching the power lifter on low reps sets but the power lifter will likely have a hard time matching the bodybuilder on high rep sets.
It’s also worth noting that weight training is only one way of taxing muscular energy stores and stimulating increased glycogen storage. Anyone engaged in more than a few hours of exercise per week, especially a sport incorporating some form of running, is likely already stimulating these adaptations.

Low Reps and Thickness

What about the claim that low rep power training builds dense, thick muscles? Take a look at the neck and trap development of some of the top power lifters and strongmen. They have a bulldog like thickness to them that you don’t see equaled by many other athletes. Many would have you believe this is solely on account of their style of training, but if you pay much attention to the sport you’ll also find plenty of people who train the same way and don’t have this look. My explanation for this is that naturally strong people tend to gravitate towards strength sports and naturally strong people are typically incredibly gifted for size as well. They have a ton of dormant muscle cells just waiting to explode, much like bulldogs, pit bulls, and boxers are thicker than other dogs. In general people that grow extremely well off of low rep/low volume training are very gifted for size and would have well above average thickness even without any training.

Rep Range and Fiber Type

Another thought is that repetition range influences the type of muscle fiber (fast twitch/slow twitch) that is built. There is some thought that high rep training (anything greater than 8-10 reps) builds slow twitch muscle fiber and should be avoided. However, slow twitch fibers really don’t grow much no matter what you do, and the small amount they can/do grow is best stimulated by the same heavy sets that cause “normal” growth, standard sets of 6-12 reps. If that weren’t the case then endurance athletes would all be huge. Regardless of how you gain it, any size you gain will be fast twitch related growth. However, there is something to be said that training can influence the quality of fast twitch fiber that you build.
All muscle fibers exist in a color continuum with some fibers being pure white and other fibers having a shade of red. Think of eating chicken. The dark meat is tender and red while the breast meat is white and tough. Your muscles are the same way. Some are redder or whiter than others. The slowest twitching fibers are dark red while the fastest twitching fibers are pure white. In between those 2 extremes there will be various shades of white and red. What causes the different color is the amount of capillaries running thru the muscle. The redder the muscle the more capillaries (and oxygen) run thru it. The whiter the fiber the less capillaries (and oxygen) run thru it. Fibers can’t completely change types. You can’t take a dark red (slow twitch) fiber and change it to a pure white (fast twitch) fiber and vice versa. However, you can change the shade of a given fiber type (slow twitch or fast twitch) to either a whiter or redder variant of the same fiber type.

IIA Vs IIX

There are different sub types of fast twitch fibers with some more enduring or more powerful than others. In humans the whiter type II fiber is known as the IIX subtype, the intermediate light red shade is known as IIA. Both of the type II subtypes have equal strength, but the white fibers are more explosive and have no endurance while the redder shades are a bit less explosive with more endurance.

Fiber type————————————Fiber type
<-----IIX---------------------------------------------IIA----->
<-----Whiter----------------------------------------Redder---->
<---Greater explosiveness------------------Less explosiveness-->
<---Less Endurance---------------------------More Endurance-->

The IIX fibers can change into IIA and vice versa, but it’s arguable how much this is dependent on rep range. For all practical purposes anything you do that causes muscle breakdown/growth will cause an intermediate shift towards more IIA fibers. Actually activity of any kind tends to promote the IIX to IIA shift, even sprint training. Unfortunately, (and this is one reason why I started off this article by saying that weight training isn’t perfect as far as transference) if you train with enough volume to cause muscle growth you train with enough volume to cause the shift. Untrained people actually have more IIX fibers than anyone because they don’t do anything, – their fibers have no need for any endurance.
Explosive athletes like sprinters and olympic weightlifters have more IIX fiber than others, but it’s likely this is a genetic trait. They start out with more, thus end up with more, as science demonstrates fast twitch IIX fibers convert to IIA with any sorta practical stimulus.
So, if you want to avoid fast to slow fiber conversions you have to avoid muscle breakdown, which means you don’t grow at all. Is there any way to create a IIA to IIX conversion? Well, detraining is one way to do it. If you want to influence IIA to IIX conversions you need to keep the volume low and avoid muscle trauma. Strategically timed tapers and incorporation of pure explosive training methods can cause temporary shifts back towards the IIX subtype, which is what athletic peaking and proper periodization is all about.

The Real Value of Rep Range

The point is, functional hypertrophy isn’t as dependent on rep range as a lot of people think. For all practical purposes what determines whether you’re functional or not is what you do outside the weight room – your movement and skill work. Train with 10 + reps, practice your sport, and stay mobile and you’ll likely be as functional as they come. Train with 1-5 reps and do nothing else and you can easily be as non-functional as a muscled up hippo.
Take 2 twin brothers that both play football. Both do skill and movement work year around. Over a span of 3 years one works up to 600 x 3 squat never doing anything more than triples. The other does 500 x 10 never doing less than 8 reps. It would likely be about impossible to tell them apart performance wise.
Another example is strongman training which has really risen in popularity in athletic training circles. Take a look at some of the characteristics of the exercises involved in strongman: Flipping a tire all the way across the parking lot, cleaning and pressing a keg then walking around with it, and farmers carries. A lot of strongman type stuff is a lot closer to the “high rep” side of things as far as time under tension goes. But how many people come out and say strongman training sucks as a strength stimulus for sports?
As long as you use progressive resistance you can build solid (and functional) size doing sets of 1 rep or you can build solid (and functional) size using sets of 20 reps. The lower body, particularly the quads, tend to respond particularly well to higher reps, and the upper rep range is a bit higher for lower body than upper body. Twenty rep squat routines are very effective for legs, but the upper limit for most upper body exercises will be around 15. In either case, providing the volume is equal, reps of 15-20, 10-12, and 3-5 have been shown to result in exactly the same stimulation of muscle protein synthesis. (7) The only real difference between them (besides one obviously using lighter weights) will be with the 15 reps (obviously the higher volume protocol) you tax muscular energy stores so in addition to increasing the protein content you also get more glycogen storage. In either case the primary stimulus (work under load) is the same, the muscles activated are the same, and regardless of rep range resistance training is a supplement, not the primary event.

Best Bang For Your Buck

For growth purposes the best “bang for your buck” rep range is arguably 6-8, or about an 80-85% max load, as it gives the ideal combination of recruitment and metabolic fatigue. You get full recruitment from the first rep and enough time under load to optimize the metabolic processes contributing to hypertrophy. Higher reps have the benefit of less joint stress while lower reps have the advantage of greater nervous system activation, and also make it easier to keep volume down and avoid growth stimulation, if that is a goal.
I don’t want this to sound like I have anything against lower rep training, but there are times when it is advisable for a person to use higher reps due to injuries, age, or equipment restrictions and the practice is certainly permissible. I’ve known people that only had a given amount of weights at their disposal or they had injuries and were forced to train with sets of 12 or more and were able to gain just fine. My general recommendation for people over the age of 35 is to keep the reps up to 10 or more for upper body so their joints don’t take such a pounding.

Don’t Forget About Nutrition

Also building size is just as much about how you eat as it is how you train. You can have the perfect hypertrophy program but it won’t do anything in the absence of good nutrition. Do sets of 10-15 while eating to keep your BW constant and all you’ll do is get strong, just ask many of the former HIT (high intensity training) Nazis. Do singles often enough while eating like a hoss and you’ll get plenty big.
-Kelly

References:
(1) Selective activation of AMPK-PGC-1alpha or PKB-TSC2-mTOR signaling can explain specific adaptive responses to endurance or resistance training-like electrical muscle stimulation. FASEB J. 2005 May;19(7):786-8. Epub 2005 Feb 16.
(2) Stimulation of human quadriceps protein synthesis after strenuous exercise: no effects of varying intensity between 60 and 90% of one repetition maximum (1RM). J Physiol 547.P, P16.
(3) No effect of creatine supplementation on human myofibrillar and sarcoplasmic protein synthesis after resistance exercise. Am J Physiol Endocrinol Metab. 2003 Nov;285(5):E1089-94.
(4)Coordinated collagen and muscle protein synthesis in human patella tendon and quadriceps muscle after exercise.J Physiol. 2005 Sep 15;567(Pt 3):1021-33.
(5)Protein synthesis rates in human muscles: neither anatomical location nor fibre-type composition are major determinants. J Physiol. 2005 Feb 15;563(Pt 1):203-11. Epub 2004 Dec 20.
(6) Skeletal muscle hypertrophy and structure and function of skeletal muscle fibres in male body builders.
(7) Muscular adaptations in response to three different resistance-training regimens: specificity of repetition maximum training zones.Eur J Appl Physiol. 2002 Nov;88(1-2):50-60. Epub 2002 Aug 15.

It’s true that the gruelling workout you’ve invested at the local “iron jungle” will stimulate your muscles to grow bigger and stronger. But ultimately it’s your diet that will provide the “building blocks” for this new growth.
However, there’s more to a bodybuilder’s diet than mountains of canned tuna and protein powder. Timing your meals just right will provide you with a competitive edge that will allow you to build muscle faster and help burn those extra layers of fat covering up your hard work.
Here’s how…

Early Morning
When you wake up, you’re at the end of a 7-9 hour fast and your muscles are screaming for nutrition. Start off with a potent protein drink for fast absorption mixed with some complex carbs for fuelling your day.
(For my “top secret recipe” of the world’s best mass building breakfast, check out my “top tip” at the end of this article!)

1-2 Hours Before Your Workout
You’re about to send your muscles into the “combat zone” so shouldn’t you provide them with the ammunition they need to “take the hill”?
Load up on some complex carbs that will provide the long lasting fuel you’ll need to power through your intense workout. Add a full dose of protein to provide a ready source of amino acids and give your muscles a head start on the growth process as you stress the muscle cells during your workout.

Immediately After Your Workout
You’ve used up the glycogen (stored carbohydrates) in your muscle cells as fuel for your workout and if you don’t replenish them fast, you’re bound to short circuit your growth.
Within 45 minutes to an hour after your workout you need to down a high-glycemic, high protein drink while your body is primed for fast absorption. Take in between 75 – 100 grams of sugar and about 25% of your day’s total protein requirement along with a healthy dose of monounsaturated fats to help stimulate testosterone production.
This is actually a key time to really pack on mass so don’t be afraid to get a little crazy here! In my “Optimum Anabolics” program I actually include a potent post-workout regimen of around 200 grams of high glycemic carbs and 20-30 grams of health fats to kick-start a mass-building hormone release. It works!

Before Bed
You’re about to enter another long period of fasting at bedtime, but it’s also a prime time for your body to repair and build muscle. The problem is that your metabolism slows way down when you sleep so a large meal before turning in has the potential to trigger fat storage.
To provide the building blocks your body needs for growth while minimizing fat storage, eat a light meal consisting of slow-digesting protein and some easily digestible carbs. A bowl of cottage cheese with some fruit is ideal or mix a scoop of protein powder (one with casein in it is best) into some milk or water. Be sure to avoid high carbs and fat calories at this time.

It's "the perfect matchup" as power wrestler Brock Lesnar faces unbelievable striker Alistair Overeem. Plus, two lightweights whose hearts beat bad blood meet in Nate Diaz vs. Donald Cerrone.

After the jump, check out the stacked fight card of the biggest MMA event of the year.

UFC 141 fight card:

Main card (Pay-per-view):
Heavyweight: Brock Lesnar vs. Alistair Overeem
Lightweight: Nate Diaz vs. Donald Cerrone
Welterweight: Jon Fitch vs. Johny Hendricks
Light Heavyweight: Vladimir Matyushenko vs. Alexander Gustafsson
Featherweight: Nam Phan vs. Jim Hettes

Preliminary card:
Featherweight: Ross Pearson vs. Junior Assuncao
Lightweight: Danny Castillo vs. Anthony Njokuani

Preliminary card:
Welterweight: Dong Hyun Kim vs. Sean Pierson
Lightweight: Jacob Volkmann vs. Efrain Escudero
Welterweight: Matt Riddle vs. Luis Ramos
Featherweight: Manvel Gamburyan vs. Diego Nunes

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The UFC will return to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on January 14th after a very successful UFC 134 event earlier this year. This will be the first PPV after the Fox deal kicks in, and will see all six preliminary fights airing on FX. The main event will see Brazilian Jose Aldo defend his UFC featherweight title against top contender Chad Mendes. The co-main will feature arguably the most popular fighter in Brazil, Vitor Belfort, taking on Anthony "Rumble" Johnson in his middleweight debut. The main card is rounded out with three excellent matchups, and it should be an excellent event. Check out the current card below (preliminary card after the jump):

Jan 14th, live on pay-per-view from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil:

Main Card:

Jose Aldo (20-1) vs. Chad Mendes (11-0) [FW Title]

Vitor Belfort (20-9) vs. Anthony Johnson (10-3)

Mike Massenzio (13-5) vs. Rousimar Palhares (13-3)

Siyar Bahadurzada (20-4-1) vs. Erick Silva (13-1, 1 NC)

Edson Barboza (9-0) vs. Terry Etim (15-3)

More SBN coverage of UFC 142

Preliminary Card:

Fabio Maldonado (18-4) vs. Stanislav Nedkov (12-0)

Felipe Arantes (13-4) vs. Antonio Carvalho (13-4)

Sam Stout (17-6-1) vs. Thiago Tavares (16-4-1)

Mike Pyle (21-8-1) vs. Paulo Thiago (14-3)

Rob Broughton (15-7-1) vs. Ednaldo Oliveira (13-0-1, 1 NC)

Yuri Alcantara (26-3) vs. Michihiro Omigawa (13-10-1)

All the betting lines for UFC 141 haven't been released yet, but what is out already is juicy. The much-anticipated main event currently sees Alistair Overeem as a favorite, but it's a very tough fight to call. Personally I'm all about Alistair at -160, but a lot of people disagree. The co-main is where I see the best value. While Donald Cerrone certainly deserves to be the favorite based on his recent past, Nate Diaz at +200 is a steal and I'm all over that like Paulo Thiago on a favela resident. I believe there is value in Matyushenko at +245 as well, despite not thinking he will win. Finally, people - bet on Jimy Hettes. Nam Phan really isn't that good, and Hettes is a highly-touted guy.

When the rest of the lines drop you'll be the first to know. Until then, here's what's out there:

Lines via www.bookmaker.eu

Dec 30th, live on pay-per-view from Las Vegas, NV:

Brock Lesnar (5-2) +130 vs. Alistair Overeem (35-11, 1 NC) -160

Nate Diaz (14-7) +200 vs. Donald Cerrone (17-3) -250

Jon Fitch (23-3-1, 1 NC) -240 vs. Johny Hendricks (11-1) +190

Vladimir Matyushenko (26-5) +245 vs. Alexander Gustafsson (12-1) -305

Jimy Hettes (9-0) +215 vs.Nam Phan (17-9) -275

More SBN coverage of UFC 141